Lane Lays It Out: Kiffin Says CFP Should Be the 16 Best—Not the Best Stories

OXFORD, Miss. — The 2025 season hasn’t even kicked off, but the debate around college football’s postseason is already heating up—and Lane Kiffin didn’t waste any time jumping into the fire.

Speaking from SEC Spring Meetings this week, the Ole Miss head coach weighed in on what he believes is a broken system in desperate need of fixing. With the College Football Playoff shifting to a straight seeding format, the conversation is moving away from automatic bids and toward letting the nation’s true best programs earn their spot—something Kiffin’s fully on board with.

And true to form, he didn’t dance around it:

Lane Kiffin

Kiffin Keeps It Real on the Current Playoff Landscape

In classic Kiffin fashion, his comments were unfiltered and brutally honest. He acknowledged flaws in the old four-team model, questioned the fairness of the new 12-team setup, and pushed for something college football hasn’t had in decades: a playoff that actually reflects who the best teams are, not just who won the weakest league.

He even drew comparisons to other NCAA sports like baseball, softball, and basketball, where selection committees are focused on seeding—not symbolism.

Lane Kiffin

And for Kiffin, automatic qualifiers don’t belong in that conversation.

How a 16-Team Format Changes the Game—for Everyone

It’s not just theory. If Kiffin’s vision had been in place, Ole Miss would have made the College Football Playoff in three of the last four seasons. The Rebels have consistently been one of the SEC’s toughest outs and have played their way into national relevance—but without a format that prioritizes strength over structure, they’ve been left on the outside.

Take a glance at the 2024 CFP rankings:

• 10 of the top 16 teams were from the SEC and Big Ten
• 6 of the 8 hosting spots would’ve gone to those same two leagues

That’s not conference bias. That’s competitive reality.

The SEC and the Shift Toward Seeding the Best

Kiffin’s stance isn’t just about Ole Miss—it reflects a larger push by SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and the conference as a whole to evolve the sport. The days of automatic bids propping up underwhelming conferences may be numbered, especially with the consolidation of power among college football’s two biggest players: the SEC and Big Ten.

Not everyone agrees—the ACC and Big 12 remain resistant to eliminating auto-bids—but the writing is on the wall. A merit-based 16-team playoff may not just be fairer; it may be inevitable.

Transfer Portal, NIL, and the Chaos Kiffin Has Learned to Master

Of course, Kiffin didn’t stop at the CFP. He touched on everything from the transfer portal to roster management and NIL—with the kind of unfiltered candor that’s become his signature. Whether he’s calling out inconsistencies or poking holes in NCAA logic, Kiffin brings a refreshing clarity to an increasingly chaotic sport.

What sets him apart is that he’s not just reacting to the changes—he’s thriving in them. And he’s building a program at Ole Miss that can not only navigate the chaos—but contend in the middle of it.

Bottom Line: The Rebels Belong

Kiffin’s message is simple: Let the best teams play. And by any measure—be it record, strength of schedule, or eye test—Ole Miss deserves to be in that conversation. In a straight-seeded, no-politics playoff? The Rebels are a threat. And everyone knows it.

So as the sport wrestles with what’s next, Lane Kiffin is already there—charting a course for the future, and making sure Ole Miss is right in the thick of it.